I’ve always wondered where blood elven priests fit into society, is there even an organisation/body that represents them? They have a place in the Sunfury Spire, next to the magisters, so you’d assume they’d be at least somewhat prevalent, but you don’t really see much representation for them beyond that.
Was it just that most of the priests became blood knights and priests became irrelevant after? Would they even have a body/organisation after that and if not, are they part of the magisters?
Also, what would they be doing nowadays? Researching ways to further their applications of the light in a more scholarly pursuit whilst drawing on the Sunwell, or would they be fully fledged devout worshippers/church of the holy light esque practitioners?
All thoughts and views appreciated, it’d just be good to see where the consensus is on these mysterious classes. xD
We see at least Liadrin returning to worship of the Light, so I don´t think it´s out of reason to assume the priests would have done so too (if they even abandoned it at all, I don´t think we really get much lore about those who stuck with being priests throughout the mana sucking era). And their inclusion as playable class is IMO enough of a justification to say that there are still some (not to mention the trainers in Sunfury Spire).
When it comes to organization, I don´t think we have any information on them. Priest trainers don´t really say much on the topic, although one of them appears in blood elf heritage armor questline in the crowd, so at least they get included among other elves.
Sometimes, the elven priests are also titles as Mage-Priests in the game, such as during Culling of Stratholme dungeon, and I´d say with Sunwell´s restoration as font of Arcane and the Light both, the mixing of Light and Arcane within their society would also become more prominent.
However, we really have to wait for Midnight for more concrete answers as we haven´t seen much of Quel´Thalas since TBC. If War Within is something to go by, we can expect getting a lot of little flavor texts and conversations that might include stuff about elven priesthood too.
The priesthood in TBC as per the race-class quests - notably the one where you ‘bless’ the farstriders defending Silvermoon’s old city gates from the Scourge. Wasn’t actually the incarnation of R/Athiesm.
It’s not as in your face but the Light - as a faith - still lingered and wasn’t shunned. Though this was overshadowed by the jaded Blood Knights and roleplayers choosing to lean in that angle. There was never much about the blood/high elven priesthood aside from a few tidbits, which i’ll have to drop later because i’m currently on the commute.
We really don’t know much culturally about any specific Elven Priesthood and their traditions. What we do know is that until recently (Frozen Throne + TBC) they were part of the Main Church and even had a High Priest, Vandellor. What this meant for them as a civilisation is kind of up in the air, but general consensus is pretty standard Church of the Holy Light stuff: self-betterment, empathy, compassion, respect etc. etc.
Weren’t priests of Quel’Thalas (prior to TBC/WC3) actually quite Holy? Just thinking of Liadrin f.e. in that one short story, though my memory of this is pretty fragmented.
I cannot imagine, especially in this day and age, that most elves are still pretty jaded – especially with the Blood Knights being Light-loving paladins not too different from the Silver Hand as per Legion, or even earlier with the Sunwell being cleansed in TBC (iirc).
They were! Even in Warcraft 3 one could argue they were. The Mage-Priests were some of the only people willing to remain in Lordaeron unto death to try and find a cure for the plague. Most of the Mage-Priests gave their lives in this endeavor, even.
To be honest I don’t think its necessary. The Church was brought to the Elves and they embraced it wholeheartedly. They just added their own little syncretisms based on their Arcane culture, which isn’t necessarily contradictory to the Church since the Church is actually fine with different syncretisms living in tandem, as long as you don’t go scarlet crusade and proclaim its your way or the highway.
The Mage-Priests fulfilling their spiritual duty as both members of the Clergy and Spiritual Guides is a pretty perfect story, its just a shame we don’t know more about the syncretisms the Elves brought to the Church.
I mean, it is contradictory to what we know of the Church from War2 (Mages burn in Hell and aren’t trusthworthy in the least) unless we consider that part old lore thats retconned out since then?
I find it somewhat difficult to believe they would’ve stuck with the whole “Church of the Holy Light” hierarchy, and slightly more believable they would’ve invented their own structured organisation especially after getting betrayed by the humans.
I’d imagine the priests that didn’t want to become knights probably still used the same method of gaining access to the light, at least until the Sunwell was restored, so I think that period of time where they were draining Muru was enough for them to change a few bits, as draining a creature of the light isn’t exactly in keeping with the church’s ideals.
Besides, the “church” is such a human term for me, whereas I view belf priests, like others have mentioned, as a mage-priest kind of spellcaster, where they’re divine academics and scholars, much like the magisters with a different source of power, instead of devout worshipper/followers of some ethos primarily created and pushed by the human church.
I mean, I think it was Humans that introduced them(and Dwarves) to the Light a 1000+ years before the Third War. Hells, I think it was Humans that were the first to learn about the Light.
So yes, its a very Human concept within Elvish society, thats usually the case with pseudo-Christianity faiths amongst other races(f.e. Dwarves also follow the Church’ teachings instead of a combination of Titanic and Light worship or one or the other, instead its Titanic(Sisterhood of Steel) or the Light(Church))
I think the word ‘church’ is fine and applicable to religion in Quel’Thalas, but it is most definitely not the same church as that we see in, let’s say Stormwind. It requires a bit of a rethink of what ‘the church’ actually is.
Much like how the human church seems fairly centralized and hierarchical, much like the Roman Catholic Church, I would view Thalassian churches more like Reformed churches - local communities of faithful that lack any kind of formal structure or organization from above.
Humans did indeed introduce the worship of the Light to the Elves, but nowhere does it mention them actually joining the Church of Lordaeron or Stormwind; only that some High Elves started to adopt the faith and began to train their own priests in Quel’Thalas. Even in Azeroth, you don’t really necessarily need a church to be a follower of the Light, or even to be a priest.
I don’t know about that. The Blood Knights were being spat on by other elves for their mistreatment of the Light. I don’t think the remaining priests accessed the Light like the Blood Knights did. Unfortunately we can only read about that period through the eyes of a priest (Liadrin) who lost her faith, and as such we can only guess about the intricacies of the faithful priests. But given that they’d be faithful/devout, I’d imagine that’s exactly how they accessed the Light.